Rogue archivist Carl Malamud writes, “Readers may recall a long-simmering dispute over the use of common abbreviations
required in citations, a technical standard known as the Uniform System of Citation.
One explanation of that standard is a manual every law student knows, The Bluebook,
long published by the Harvard Law Review Association in cooperation with 3 other law
schools.”
In 2014, a law professor in Japan wrote about
5 years
of frustration trying to gain the blessings of the Harvard Law Review Association
to use those abbreviations in open source software. Since then, I’ve been working with
Chris Sprigman of NYU on an open implementation of that standard. The Blue Wars got even more intense
this Christmas eve with an urgent communication from the Association’s law firm, and then last month hundreds of
law students from Harvard, Yale, NYU, and Stanford wrote petitions to the Blue People urging them
for them to welcome
free and open.That open implementation, a book we call Baby Blue’s Manual of Legal Citation, is now online and has been
extensively examined and revised.
Yesterday, I submitted a detailed account of the Blue Wars
to the Harvard Law Record, the student newspaper of Harvard Law School.
My hope is that peace is at hand and we’ll all be able to work together and gather in a big tent for the First Global
Citation Congress. It is time for peace.I’m especially grateful to Mr. Michael Zuckerman, the new President of the Harvard Law Review Association for his
patience and civility in our discussions over the last few weeks. He’s a good guy and I appreciate the time he’s
spent going over their concerns. We didn’t make all the changes they suggested, but we made many, and I look forward
to working with him in the future as we explore the future of citation.
The Blue Wars: A Report from the Front
[Carl Malamud/Harvard Law Record]